APRA AMCOS Paid 248,994 Songwriters $294,000,000 In 15-16

Australian songwriters and publishers had a 14% revenue increase during 2014-2015 with APRA/AMCOS confirming it paid out $294,600,000 in the last financial year.

In an industry quick to promote doom and gloom the songwriter sector is bigger than ever before. APRA/AMCOS collected $333 million. That is a quarter of a billion dollars. Revenues were up 11% for the year.

APRA AMCOS Chief Executive, “At a time when copyright is working in practice as it should, and just when the culturally-rich and economically vital business of music is getting back on its feet, it’s difficult to fathom why measures such as those relating to Safe Harbour expansion or so-called ‘fair use’ should be contemplated by government”.

Streaming had a 140% revenue increase, albeit on small figures. $27.4 million was raised from streaming, $67.8 million from digital revenue and $38.3 million from export revenue. Export revenue is up 75% over three years.

There was also a 6.8% increase from performance revenue.

Brett Cottle said, “While revenue from digital services is growing rapidly, the sheer volume of music being consumed is growing exponentially, which means that the fruits of this growth are being spread over a vastly increased pool of songwriters.”

The APRA/AMCOS revenue was a record for the company. It represents a $20 million increase over the previous year and that is a windfall for Australian songwriters.

As a comparison to a decade ago for the 2005-2006 financial year records show that “APRA’s gross revenue collection was $127.2 million (net of management fees) and AMCOS collected $41 million. APRA distributed over $110.3 million during the year whilst AMCOS distributed a total of $35 million to composers and music publishers”. Combined APRA and AMCOS revenue that is $168.2m representing a 100% increase in revenue over 10 years.